News in Brief: A National Roundup

Mass. School Board OKs Limits For Bilingual Ed.

The Massachusetts state school board has endorsed a legislative
proposal that would drastically scale back bilingual education if
approved by lawmakers next year.

Under the plan, a non-English-speaking student could spend no more
than a year in a bilingual classroom.

Eighty percent of the state's 44,000 students whose English is
limited transfer from bilingual to mainstream classrooms within three
years, according to state estimates.

The plan, which has been criticized by bilingual education
supporters, is designed to give districts more flexibility to decide
how to educate limited-English-proficient students.

--Robert C. Johnston

Audit Says Firm Overcharged

A company that runs two private schools for disabled children
overcharged six New Jersey districts by about $2.5 million for its
services, according to a state audit.

The 200-plus-page report, commissioned by the state education
department and released last month, found that Archway Programs Inc.
violated numerous state regulations and provided inadequate educational
services to the 240 students it serves in schools in Washington
Township and Burlington County.

The company's owners, a married couple, charged the districts for
hundreds of inappropriate expenses, including an $11,000 trip to Hong
Kong, according to the audit.

The Atco, N.J.-based company, which has admitted no wrongdoing, is
appealing the decision. The state has ordered it to present a
corrective-action plan within 45 days.

--Joetta L. Sack

Schools To Post Offenders' Photos

A New York City community school board has ordered that photos of
released sex offenders be posted in all the district's elementary and
middle schools, making it one of the city's toughest policies.

Although the board passed the measure in August, District 24 in the
Queens borough used the policy for the first time Nov. 9, when a
convicted sex offender moved into the area.

New York state's policy, which required individual districts to send
parents letters and post notices in schools, was too weak, said Frank
M. Borzellieri, a board member for the 36,000-student community
district and the sponsor of the policy.

With the new policy, local schools may now mail notices to parents
with photos and detailed descriptions of the offenders and their
crimes.

Some educators and child psychologists have warned that the policy
could do more harm than good by scaring students unnecessarily. But Mr.
Borzellieri said the idea has received community support.

--Adrienne D. Coles

District Settles Harassment Suit

A Washington state district has settled a federal civil rights
lawsuit by a former student who alleged school officials failed to
protect him from anti-gay harassment by other students.

The 25,000-student Kent, Wash., district will pay $40,000 to settle
the suit filed by Mark Iversen, who is now a 20-year-old college
student.

Mr.
Iversen's suit, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, said that
he faced frequent harassment by other students at Kentwood High School
for being openly homosexual.

In one incident, he was beaten and kicked, allegedly by a group of
eight students in a classroom while others watched. Several students
faced juvenile-court proceedings as a result.

The lawsuit said school officials' failure to stop the harassment
violated Mr. Iversen's guarantee of equal protection under the law.

But district officials said they had acted in good faith to enforce
anti-harassment policies and to discipline students who tormented Mr.
Iversen. At one point, they assigned a security officer specifically to
protect him.

Under the settlement, the district must educate teachers and
administrators about peer sexual harassment based on sexual
orientation.

--Mark Walsh

Help Pledged for Boston Students

Following reports of dismal academic performance by their
communities' students, a group of African-American churches in Boston
has pledged to assume greater responsibility for ensuring the success
of the children.

The Black Ministerial Alliance announced plans last month to start
after-school programs offering tutoring and other educational
activities within three years at all of its 60 churches.

Now seeking $1.5 million in grants to underwrite the effort, the
group also recently began holding monthly "summits" to inform community
members about new school policies in such areas as student assessment
and promotion.

The Rev. Gregory Groover, who chairs the group's education
committee, said that while the school system has the primary charge of
educating children, his associates hope to help.

The promise came after the nonprofit Massachusetts Advocacy Center
announced that a study it commissioned showed that only 15 of 750 black
11th graders in the city's schools had achieved "partial mastery" on a
standardized test in mathematics.

--Jeff Archer

City Plans Construction Aid

The Cincinnati City Council has taken steps to make good on a $100
million promise to help the city's 52,400-student district repair its
crumbling schools.

Along with Hamilton County, which includes Cincinnati, the city made
such a pledge in 1996 as part of negotiations for a sales-tax increase
to raise money for stadiums for its professional sports teams.

County officials have already put their $100 million commitment in
writing, and city leaders agreed last month to pay the district $5
million a year for 20 years, beginning in January 2000. The money will
come out of the city's general fund.

Arthur Hull, the president of the school board, said that district
officials hope to break ground on new construction projects as early as
next summer.

--Jessica L. Sandham

Employees Retire After Probe

Two employees of the Scottsdale, Ariz., school district have decided
to take early retirement after they were named in a state
investigation.

In a report released in October, the state auditor general said the
district illegally awarded nearly $12 million in contracts, refused to
give documents to investigators, and accepted kickbacks.

The district settled out of court with the state attorney general in
October.

It paid $300,000 and "admits it systematically and pervasively
violated multiple state laws and failed to maintain and produce records
for us," said Karie K. Dozer, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's
office.

The auditor general's investigation took a year and a half to
complete and examined three administrations, she said.

The district's director of purchasing and the executive director of
building services announced their early retirements Nov. 10 after the
auditor general linked them with wrongdoing, said Gremlyn
Bradley-Waddell, the spokeswoman for the 6,700-student district.

Neither of the two employees has been charged.

--Mary Ann Zehr

Boy Fatally Stabbed on Bus

Police in Jefferson County, Miss., have charged a 13-year-old boy
with murder after the 8th grader allegedly stabbed another student on a
bus ride home from school.

During an argument on the school bus, according to law-enforcement
officials, Roderick M. Frye drew a 3-inch knife from his pocket and
stabbed 14-year-old Kenneth Earl Grayson three times in the chest. The
victim died at the scene. Both students attended Jefferson County
Middle School.

Sheriff Peter E. Walker said his office was still investigating what
might have caused the fatal altercation, which has rattled the rural
county of 9,000 people.

The alleged assailant, who is being held without bail in the county
jail until a hearing later this month, will automatically be tried as
an adult and could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted,
officials said.

State law requires the transfer to adult court of juveniles facing
charges of murder or other serious crimes.

--Jessica Portner

Principals Get More Firing Power

Teachers in the District of Columbia can be fired after a 90-day
probation, under a plan to help principals who once had to wait a year
or more to move against low-performing employees.

Superintendent Arlene Ackerman, who assumed her current post in May,
says the 90-day notice is part of her plan to make sure Washington's
5,000 or so public school teachers are fit for their classrooms.

Principals in the 146-school system will assess teachers based on
student test scores and in-classroom evaluations of student
performance.

A low-performing teacher and his or her principal will have 90 days
to work on improving the assessment, according to Denise Tann, the
system's acting communications director.

The plan's critics, which include parents and teachers, argue that
the probation is too limiting, and that it is one of the shortest in
the nation.

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